Emma Thompson has a powerful message about body image for young people

"I think that I started hating my body when I was about 14."
 By 
Rachel Thompson
 on 
Emma Thompson in a lemon yellow suit with a pensive look on her face.
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For many of us, our relationship to our body is a complicated one. Not least because of the existence of the patriarchy.

Here with some words of wisdom is none other than Emma Thompson, who has a nude scene in her upcoming film Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. In the scene, she looks at her unclothed body in a mirror with a look of neutrality. Speaking to Stephen Colbert about the significance of that scene, Thompson talked about her own relationship to her body.

"I think that I started hating my body when I was about 14," she said. "I think those neural pathways are kind of well carved into my soul. I know we laugh, but you think of all those eight-year-olds out there going 'I don't like my thighs.'"

Colbert asked Thompson if she had a message for 14-year-olds who are experiencing poor body image.

"Don't waste your time, don't waste your life's purpose worrying about your body. This is your vessel, it's your house, it's where you live, there's no point in judging it, absolutely no point, but it's very hard to do," she said.

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Rachel Thompson, sits wearing a dress with yellow florals and black background.
Rachel Thompson
Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.


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